Navigating the Post-Lockdown Wedding Boom with White Lily

Walking along Military Road in the Lower North Shore village of Mosman, you’ll be stopped in your tracks by a sweet smell of freesia and hyacinth, or by a friendly Italian shouting your name. Either way, you’ll know you’ve arrived at The Floral Craftsman. The man behind the craft is Matt Bisaro, a stalwart identity of the busy shopping strip, who’s floral arrangements have been gracing the homes, weddings, and offices of Sydneysiders since 2003. Taking to customer service like he does to a delicate orchid, Matt’s warmth and careful attention is a large part of what’s kept the business thriving for so long. And in an industry that’s not only physically demanding, but also fluctuates with the ebb and flow of discretionary spending, perennial success is hard to come by. Matt spoke to us about the changing face of floristry, the importance of relationships, and how updating his payment technology helped him navigate a challenging economy. A business rooted in relationships. “Hi Jenny! They’re $15 a bloom!” Matt’s voice booms across the shop. Mid-way through explaining what he believes is the key to The Floral Craftsman ’s long-running success, this interjection says it all. “It's just relationships,” he affirms. “Mosman is a village… they're very community and family focused. I come from a really big family, so it's normal for me. I like it, I like knowing people.” His infectious laugh and exuberant energy make it no surprise that people like knowing him too. And it’s not just his customers: “Staff love it. I do tend to keep them for a good five years or more… They might go away for a few years but all of a sudden I'll get a phone call and they want to come back! That has happened a lot with multiple staff. We always say there's a revolving door here. ” Investing time into training and supporting his staff while also building a strong rapport with his customers has fostered a supportive community that has helped propel the business through more than one economic downturn . Passion, hard work & quality. Reflecting on the tougher moments in the business’ history, he recalls the global financial crisis: “We survived the GFC. I thought we would go under,” he says. “That day that everything crashed, the phone rang and rang and rang. It was corporate clients and regular customers saying ‘cancel my credit card’, ‘cancel my order’, ‘cancel the flowers’... in one day, everything went.” Matt’s tenacity kept The Floral Craftsman afloat in 2007, as it did again when multiple seasons of drought and flood plagued the industry, and again when the global pandemic put a stop to all his event orders. “You just have to work hard,” he says, “I've always had that instilled in me.” But he insists it's also about passion, “I love what I do. They say if you love what you do, it doesn't feel like work. It does. But I still love it. 20 years later. I still love it.” Matt’s dedication to his trade doesn’t go unnoticed by his customers. The Floral Craftsman has become a trusted institution by individual and large corporate clients alike. “It's got to be about quality… these people know quality,” he says of his customers. “Even if I receive stock that’s not as great as what I’d wanted, I’ve just gotta wear it and try and use it elsewhere or buy something else. I cannot give that inferior product,” he says. The changing face of floristry. While Matt’s passion for floristry hasn’t changed, the industry has. Having started out as a “lackey” doing deliveries and cutting his teeth in the workroom, Matt’s initiation was starkly different from those entering floristry today. “Now, everyone does a course and then becomes a freelancer,” he explains. “Back in the day, we all had portfolios. Now, it's all on your social media feeds.” The younger cohort are bypassing the experience of working in bricks-and-mortar florists, which is not only making it difficult for Matt to find staff, but he believes it’s also not equipping them for a long-term career, “There are only a few freelancers in Sydney that have been around for a long time… they might last a couple of years, but the burnout rate is pretty big.” The other significant change is cost. Twenty five years ago, the Sydney Flower Market was the meeting place for hundreds of independent growers, today, it is largely a wholesale market. “Wholesalers put a markup on whatever they buy from the little guys,” Matt explains. “The other thing that's happened is that 60-70% of that stock in the flower market is all imported. From Holland, India, South Africa, Asia, New Zealand… so the costs have gone up again because of freight.” Add inflation into the mix, and you can understand why the bunch of tulips you were buying for $35 a decade ago now costs $65. “They should be about $70-$75 but I can't do it.” Matt adds, “I just can’t do it. For 10 stems of tulips, $75 dollars… It’s kind of laughable. They’re just flowers at the end of the day!” Fresh cut costs. In response to rising overheads, Matt says he’s always looking for new ways to cut costs. “But it's hard,” he adds, “I've had to increase some prices and then I've just got to bear the brunt.” One area, however, where Matt has managed to make considerable savings is through his payment process. Since using Zeller Terminal , he has not only reduced his merchant fees to zero through surcharging , but he’s also been able to welcome back customers using American Express “My favourite thing with Zeller is that I get the same merchant fee for AMEX. Because they do use AMEX more here. I used to have to refuse AMEX payments, and I lost people over it.” What’s more, being able to track his cash flow using Zeller Dashboard, and Zeller App on his smartphone when he’s on the go, has aided Matt in maintaining steady income, “What I love with Zeller is that I can just check in on my phone and see how the sales are going,” he explains, “For example, if we’re getting close to Thursday, I check how much we’ve done so far to make sure we’re on target. It's been the best merchant facility I've had over the years.” Coming up roses. “The one thing about this shop is that it’s got my name on it,” says Matt, “It is me, so it’s quirky and unusual and it changes all the time and there are no set rules.” Indeed, putting his name, as well as his pride and passion, behind the business has been The Floral Craftsman’s biggest strength. Having never relied on any traditional marketing, the business has instead invested in care: for its product, its customers and its staff. In conjunction with a lot of hard work and savvy decisions around cost-cutting and tech upgrades, Matt Bisaro has ensured that even in the most difficult of economic climates, The Floral Craftsman has always come up roses. To read about other Australians growing their businesses with Zeller, head to the Zeller Business Blog and sign up to our newsletter to receive stories straight to your inbox.

Meet the all-authentic Italian food truck navigating an expansion during COVID-19. The evolution from popular mobile food truck to permanent bar, deli and cafe seems a natural progression for Bar Positano . After a successful eighteen months serving paninis, cheese boards, and other Italian delights from the bay window of their highly instagrammable van, co-owners Anthony Porra and Luca Andolfo decided to put down stumps in Sydney’s Surry Hills and shift their focus to the sit-down dining experience. Although a sudden citywide lockdown threatened to derail the grand opening of Bar Positano’s new brick-and-mortar location, the duo were quick to adapt. Celebratory spritzes were swapped for takeaway cocktails and the deli was stocked with take-home pasta so locals could dish up their own cure for those holiday cravings. We spoke to Luca and Anthony about the challenges they’ve faced so far, and why now’s the perfect time to bring a slice of the Amalfi Coast to Surry Hills. Tell us a bit about how Bar Positano first started. We first started out in the events industry, providing event hire and styling services for many weddings and other events. A lot of clients use pop-up food and drink vendors for a more casual style, so we decided to add a mobile bar to our offering. Being of Italian heritage, we thought we could offer a unique and authentic food truck, focusing on quality products and service for weddings, private and public events. Then we were in Surry Hills one evening and saw the vacant shop, which had a nice unique style and a sunny corner position. Many Australians travel and love the Italian summer atmosphere, when it comes to alfresco dining and aperitivo. We’ve always wanted to bring that experience to Sydney, and thought this would be a perfect location to test our idea. What was the biggest challenge you faced, establishing a permanent site? Being a food truck, we always tailored our menu based on the event or location we were serving. We also kept to a limited menu, as it is always a challenge working within such a small space! Moving into a physical location made us really think about our target market and demographic, as well as a gap in the market which we wanted to target. It is always challenging establishing a new business in a niche category, as you don’t know whether it will work or not. But we believe in it and really love it ourselves, so we just hope that everyone else does too. How has COVID-19 impacted your business? COVID-19 is a huge challenge to all businesses, but we decided to open up anyway as we wanted the community to see what we have to offer — albeit with a limited menu at the moment. We also sell smallgoods from the deli and pasta, sauces and other Italian products, which are a benefit to locals during lockdown. It’s the right time for us, particularly because we are opening in winter — at a time people normally head off overseas for a summer holiday. Despite the current restrictions, we’re giving customers a feeling of being overseas on holiday, or eating and drinking what they normally would if they were in Italy. We have been lucky enough to receive support from the locals, grabbing something takeaway and supporting our new business. What inspired you to make the switch to Zeller? How are you finding it? What we were looking for was a reliable system that was simple to use in a fast-paced environment. We love that the terminal not only looks good and suits our decor, but it is so simple to use with extremely low rates. The customer service and support is really great, the onboarding simple and straightforward, and the general daily use is so simple and reliable. Really happy we chose Zeller! What have you learned about running a business, with everything going on this year? To really think about our business concept, and how we can still be true to our brand and offering while remaining versatile so we can adapt as situations change.  For instance, instead of sitting down to an antipasti board and Aperol Spritz — which is what we initially envisioned — we decided to advertise takeaway deals on our social profiles and package everything up, including the alcohol, so people can enjoy the same product at home, or wherever they may be. It is so important to stay in touch with the community by communicating on social media, the website, and as best you can in store for anyone who passes by. What’s next for Bar Positano? We are really looking forward to opening our doors and having people sit down and enjoy the space. At the moment it feels like a bit of a tease, as we have only been offering takeaway coffees, panini, and a limited menu from the deli. It will be great to be able to operate at full capacity, for both our customers and staff. Do you have any advice for other business owners at this time? Stay positive, be creative and hang in there! The community is really supportive and tries to support as best they can. Restrictions will eventually lift, so just take it day by day and be flexible with your product, trading hours, and how you operate your business.

Discover five ways Zeller helps keep business on track during the transition. Thinking about scaling up your business? Having the opportunity to expand to new locations, upsize to a bigger premises, hire more staff, or build out your operations is a sign you’re doing something right. Whatever step you’re preparing to take next, you should be proud and excited. There are some common mistakes merchants make during this transitional time, and the consequences that flow from taking on too much too soon can stifle – rather than encourage – growth. Fortunately, there are ways and means of scaling up sustainably. It all comes down to engaging the right tools. Here are five ways Zeller can minimise the potential for growing pains as you scale your operations. 1. Get a clear overview of all stores The more business locations you have, the harder it becomes to understand how each is performing. This is especially true if you’re juggling independent sales channels, staff and technology. Before you open a second location, take the time to gain a real-time oversight of your finances — something that will play a priceless role in future business decisions. Unifying your data in the one dashboard is a simple way to retain visibility over multiple locations, enabling you to quickly access key sales information from anywhere with an internet connection. Zeller Dashboard gives you real-time visibility over the financial health of your business, and each of the locations within it. When you accept payment via Zeller Terminal and make business purchases using Zeller Mastercard, you can see all of your incomings and outgoings at a glance. 2. Keep track of your customers When you run a single-location business, it’s relatively simple and straightforward to retain complete control over your customers’ store experience. You can take the time to get to know your regulars, give staff hands-on training, and provide attentive, personalised customer service. As your business grows, that positive customer experience can be compromised in favour of more sales. When you’re operating out of multiple locations, you lose some of that control. It’s impossible to be in two places at once, after all. One thing you do have control over is the technology you rely upon to grow your business. There are many customer relationship management tools on the market that can help you make your customers feel seen and looked after, such as the Zeller Contact Directory. Storing business and personal details in the one place will give you a clear oversight of every customer — what they buy, how they buy it, and where and when they bought it. This insight can be used to build clever marketing programs that offer rewards, discounts and communications that create a positive customer experience even when they’re not in-store. 3. Iron out inventory management Streamlined, accurate inventory management becomes more critical with every new business location you open. Issues such as displaced, miscounted and lost stock are a bigger threat to your business when you operate multiple shop fronts. With the right retail POS system installed, you can minimise the management required to keep on top of all your stock. Having one centralised platform makes it easier to transfer stock, track shipments and manage inventory levels. Many POS systems will also give you the ability to remotely order stock for any store, from any store, as well as identify and forecast product sales trends to facilitate smarter ordering. Make sure your payment system can seamlessly integrate with your POS system, adding an extra layer of data and control to your inventory processes while minimising the admin overload of keeping on top of stock. 4. Simplify your finances It can be difficult to keep track of the money going in and out of your business when you’re not the only one accepting payments from customers, or making business purchases. This is a common problem owners come up against when they expand their business. Plus, having more money to manage can be a hurdle in itself. One way to avoid the repercussions of mishandling your income and expenses is to employ a professional bookkeeper, but there are many tasks you can do yourself to keep administrative costs as low as possible. For day-to-day expense management, accounting software will help you keep track of invoices and get paid on time. For real-time information about the incomings and outgoings at each business location, Zeller Dashboard provides at-a-glance insights to ensure you know whether you’ll reach your sales targets. 5. Better coordinate your staff Expanding your store means expanding your staff and, while it sounds straightforward, the financial and time investment can be substantial. Hiring new staff will likely require a sizeable investment of your own time — you’ll need to bring them up to speed with products, systems and customer experience standards. Having intuitive tools can significantly streamline this process, especially if you use a fully-integrated system like Zeller Terminal . When your tools speak to each other, it reduces the need for staff to juggle multiple platforms. Keep in mind that, when it comes to hiring junior staff, there are some parts of your business you will likely want to keep secure. You may not want new junior staff to be able to process refunds, or change the settings on your EFTPOS terminals. With Zeller, you can secure these features with a PIN code. Taking the first steps towards growing your business can be daunting. Fortunately, there are a number of things you can do to streamline the process and minimise any growing pains you may experience along the way. The trick is strategising for growth and ensuring you’re properly equipped to scale up. Having the right tools on hand will make all the difference. Now that you know how to smooth the path to expansion, keep up with the latest Zeller updates and announcements by subscribing to the Zeller Business Blog newsletter below. By sharing your details with us, we may contact you from time to time. We promise we won’t bug you — and you can unsubscribe from communications at any time.